06: Reacquaintances

Alex awoke to a comfortable mental fog, memories only slowly filtering through of what had happened the night before. Remembering, he slowly opened his eyes and looked about. It took him a moment to remove the hair from his face, but he couldn’t see much. Someone was holding him loosely from behind, her naked breasts pressing into his back, while another body lay over him, her dark head with its darker black hair lying against his chest, her soft breathing telling him she was still asleep. He tried glancing over his shoulder, but even without looking he knew who it would be, who it always was, and that someone very important was missing. He already felt her loss.

The arms wrapped around him tightened, so he knew at least one other person was awake.

‘Gail? Are you awake?‘ he asked softly, quiet even for a telepathic whisper.

‘Yeah, boss man. I’m awake. Though for as long as you kept us awake with all that screaming last night, I’m a bit surprised, ‘ she answered him.

‘Sorry about that, ‘ Alex apologized.

‘No you aren’t, ‘ Gail contradicted him.

‘You’re right, I’m not,’ he replied with a grin even telepathy couldn’t convey. ‘Do you have any idea what time it is?‘

‘Yes, it’s a little after six. You about ready to get up?‘

‘Yeah, you’d better get the other girls up. Who’d you end up sleeping with?‘

‘I got my own bed. Seems your two little girlfriends have developed quite a friendship with each other. They’re both looking very happy in each others’ arms.‘

‘That’s good. I can’t think of anyone who deserves it more, ‘ Alex told her before ending their short conversation.

“Finish speaking with Gail?” Cate whispered near his ear so she wouldn’t disturb Liv.

“Yeah, how’d you know?” he asked.

“You always reach out to whoever you’re physically closest to, as if they are the most in need of you, which is probably true most of the time. I can’t see you reaching out to Shani or Patricia at the moment.”

“Always the careful observer, you should add psychology to your list of fields of study,” he observed. Liv shifted against him, murmuring as she started to awaken.

“Shh, don’t awaken sleeping beauty,” he whispered.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” she answered before pausing. “Hey, wait a minute, what am I then? Sleeping Rapunzel?” Alex couldn’t help it and started giggling quietly, which caused Liv to rustle a little more as she tried to find a more comfortable spot on Alex’s chest. However, that just made it worse and soon brother and sister were trying to contain their sudden giggle fits.

“Hmm, some comfy pillow you are,” Liv complained, finally opening her eyes and looking up at Alex. “There I was, all comfortable and then my pillow starts giggling.”

“Good morning, beautiful. Or should I say beautifuls? Whatever happened to Shanna? Last I remember she was recovering from having her head blown off.”

“Yeah, you were pretty out of it after the last time,” Cate reminded him. “I forced you to eat something while Shanna recovered, then you fell fast asleep. I keep warning you that you burn off a lot more energy than you’re aware of. However Shanna had to take off shortly after that. Seems she still had some packing to do, and she wanted to finish her sleep at her place so she’ll be well rested when she joins us this morning.”

‘Hey, Shanna?‘ Alex called, reaching out once again.

‘Hey yourself, handsome. I was wondering just how long it would take you to wake up. You were pretty out of it when I left last night.‘

‘So I heard. Sorry about that. Are you awake and getting ready yet?‘ he asked.

‘Yep, I’ll be ready to head out in a bit. I’m packing the car as we speak. I’ve got a lot of mementos and office supplies in it. I’ll park in the garage when I get to the hotel, just so I don’t have to worry about leaving all this stuff on the street.‘

‘Sounds like a plan. Are you going to be ready for breakfast or will you need more time?‘

‘No, I should be ready. I’m anxious to get started today. Is everyone going to be there for breakfast?‘

‘As far as I know. I’m assuming Emma and Sarah will be there, so yeah, everyone should be there.‘

‘Good, I’ll see you in a little while then. Now, unless you want to come over and help, I’ve got to finish up here, ‘ she replied and they both said goodbye.

“Shanna says she’ll be ready for breakfast,” Alex told the two girls.

“Good, we wouldn’t want to leave without her,” Cate told him.

“Care to take a shower?” Liv asked. “Maybe we could try for a second cumming,” she teased, making a terrible pun.

“If you do, you’ll have to finish fooling around within a half hour of breakfast,” Cate told them. “Alex finished off all the spare food last night. We’ll have to stock up on the way out this morning. This boy can eat like a horse.”

“Oh, that’s too bad. Well, maybe in that case we can wash each other’s backs ... and fronts,” Liv suggested.

“You do that,” Cate told them. “I’ll call home while you’re busy and talk to Mom and Dad. They’ll want to know how things are going. I’m assuming you’ve already talked to the girls?”

“Not this morning, but I talk to them throughout the day. If they ask, you can fill them in on last night,” Alex told her before he followed Liv into the bathroom, grinning broadly. Cate sighed as she started dialing the phone, thinking it frustrating watching others have all the fun while she pretended she and Alex weren’t involved.

“Well, glad to see you could make it for breakfast,” Emma said, clearly happy to see Alex again. She and Sarah said hi to everyone. Liv couldn’t wipe the grin off her face, though, so everyone smiled in knowing acknowledgement.

“Shanna should be by soon,” Alex informed them. “I spoke to her and she said she’d be here shortly.”

“Good, it’ll be a full house then,” Sarah responded.

“So how did the two of you sleep last night?” Alex asked, trying to get everyone’s mind off of his romantic interludes of the previous night and that morning.

“We did fine, although we can see you did pretty well yourself,” Sarah responded. “So, Liv, did he work any magic on you?”

“Man, you better believe it,” she said. “I can talk to people I’ve never even met. It’s amazing. I think I’ll be talking to Alex all day just because I can.”

“Well, I hope you enjoy it. I’d love to have that ability,” Emma said, looking envious.

“You and me both,” Cate complained. “That’s the problem with being Alex’s wingman, I’ve got to watch everyone else reap the benefits.”

“Are you kidding?” Amy asked unbelievingly. “You get to go everywhere with Alex and spend all your time with him. Not only that, you get to see whatever he does and talk to everyone he, uh, does.” The other girls laughed at that while Alex and Cate both blushed.

“She gets a few side benefits as well,” Gail suggested meaningfully, which Liv and Tina smiled knowingly at.

“So, we’re sorry to see you leave. It’s been a blast,” Sarah told them.

“Before you take off, I want to say a few things,” Alex told them. “When you go home, I want you to talk to your relatives and pay attention to anyone you think might be either a type 1 or type 2. If you’re in doubt, include them. Next, suggest they come down to New Orleans. The type 2s don’t need to be there anytime soon, but if they want to meet me, or if there’s any type 1s, they’ll have to get down there in the next couple of days.

“They might not have much of a choice later,” he continued, “but at this stage they can make up their own minds whether they want to be involved in this whole scene or not, so try to make it sound convincing.”

“Alex Peter Jennings! Don’t you dare say anything more about mind control. I thought we’d settled this yesterday,” Cate insisted. “You don’t control anyone’s mind and you don’t make decisions for anyone. Everyone who is involved with you got involved because they wanted to. If any of their relatives don’t want to get involved with you, it’ll be because they don’t believe them when they describe you. Now I’m going to break this habit of yours of assuming no one would voluntarily accept you for who you are.”

Everyone looked at Cate in shock for a few moments, then the girls all started giggling uneasily.

“Yes, Mom,” Alex told her in an imitation childish voice.

“Now I know you two must be involved with each other,” Liv commented. “Only two lovers would scold someone like that, and only a lover can pull the mother card. Anyone else would be history.” They all laughed a bit more openly at that and Cate blushed heavily. “By the way, don’t ever call your sister ‘Mom’ again if you know what’s good for you,” Liv warned him with a dire look.

“Don’t worry, Alex,” Emma told him, returning the discussion to the prior topic, “we’ll be down in a few days, with or without any relatives. There are a couple who might be possible, it’ll be interesting to find out.”

“Hey there, everyone,” Shanna called out as she neared the table. Everyone welcomed her, breaking up the discussion as they got their food from the breakfast bar. Sitting down again they started to eat.

“OK, Tina, Amy and Shanna are all coming with us, correct?” Alex asked, just to figure out logistics. They each nodded their heads.

“I’m already telling you, I don’t care who drives with who, but you’re riding with me,” Gail told Alex in a no nonsense tone of voice.

“That goes for me as well,” Cate said. “Wherever you go, we’re bound to find new followers, so I want to be there to keep track of them.”

“I don’t know if that’s necessary,” Alex suggested, “Tiny and Amy have proven adept at talking to the new Watchers.”

“Yes, they have, but I still think I should keep track of them. I’ve been doing more than just talking to them. I’m also keeping track of who we meet, where we meet them, the circumstances and I record any personal observations. Plus Tina and Amy don’t have experience with the Seers. Each of them takes additional time, and the circumstances are almost always bound to attract attention. You need someone to watch your back. They can help out, but I want to be with you to ensure everything goes smoothly.”

“I’m OK driving on my own,” Shanna told them. “Although I’d appreciate some company, I can always talk to Alex or Liv while I drive, so I’ll be fine.”

“Amy and I would like to ride with you guys,” Tina said, “but we were thinking of shifting off with one of you, so no one had to ride alone. I guess that idea is out the window now.”

“OK, I know it’s awkward, but everyone travels in their own cars,” Alex announced, taking the role of decision maker once again. “We’ll take the lead, Tina and Amy can follow, so they can stop and help if necessary. Shanna can pick up the rear. She’ll only stop if we meet another Seer so they can commiserate, but the chances of that are pretty slim.

“We found out on the way here we’ll probably have to stop pretty frequently. We ended up stopping nearly every exit, so expect a lot of interruptions. If anyone doesn’t want to stop, just keep going. We’re heading to Allison’s place, she made arrangements for us to use it for the next several days. We’ll give everyone the address so we can meet if we get split up. Otherwise, if one of us stops the others can join us or simply head for the next exit. Anytime we stop we meet up at the next exit, since chances are we’ll drag whoever we meet there to educate them. Everyone got that?”

They all agreed, so they resumed their normal conversations. When they were finished, Alex hugged the two girls from Springfield, Missouri. He told them to try to bring their mother, sister and aunt, who they’d mentioned might be potential new followers, and he hoped to see them in a couple of days. “Just be prepared for a madhouse, because I’m known throughout New Orleans now, so there’s no telling what might happen.”

“Yeah, we’ve figured that out by now,” Emma replied. “Whenever you’re around, anything is likely to happen.”

“OK, now that that’s taken care of, Liv, I assume you’ll be heading up to Carbondale soon?” She nodded meekly like a little girl, instead of the assertive professional she was.

“Yes, sir, I’m planning on heading up this coming Monday. I’ll be clearing up all my outstanding cases for the rest of the week, just so no one will be inconvenienced by my absence.”

“Good, I like that attitude. You demonstrate your own personal sense of responsibility, both to your tasks but also to your friends and coworkers. That makes me think that much more of you.” Liv smiled brightly at this praise, even though it was so imprecise. “You’ll enjoy everyone you meet up there, and I’m sure they’ll fill you in on every little detail about me, but I wouldn’t believe a word of it if I were you.”

She gave him a big hug and wished them luck. Everyone said goodbye after that and the others headed out and the little caravan got underway. For two of the cars scheduling was easy to arrange, since they were in constant communications. For the other, they had to use a cellphone, so it took a bit more work.

As they headed out, Cate, who was riding in the back seat, turned to Alex, who was driving.

“Alex, I thought we’d discuss what happened in Memphis while we have you to ourselves.”

“Yeah, it was something, wasn’t it? Hell, we encountered more people in Memphis in one day than we did in St. Louis, a much larger city, in two weekends.”

“That’s hardly accurate, or even true,” Cate responded. “You met three Seers the first weekend in St. Louis, and we hardly spent as long there as we did here. And don’t argue the fact you met Nikki in St. Louis. If you don’t count her, then you can’t count Kelly Ott, since you met her in a hotel. Besides, we’ve learned a lot about how to handle these things. We dealt with the Watchers, we set up people to watch for anyone approaching you, and we tried to scoop up anyone in the vicinity. We’re handling things much more efficiently. We might have learned these things in St. Louis if we had the chance. However you allowed Clara and Lisa to chase us out of town instead.”

Alex listened to Cate’s points, simply nodding in acknowledgment. He was well aware of the details. They had indeed learned a lot, and St. Louis ended up as a bit of a fiasco. Much like New Orleans had before. Thus he felt nervous about what they’d encounter there this week.

“We’ll have to be careful in New Orleans,” Alex told both Cate and Gail. “We know everyone will be watching and Albert Rodriguez is aware of me. Let’s see if we can prepare for whatever happens this time. But just be aware we may have to skip town again. I know Patricia has several things planned, but let’s keep our options open. She and our trio of Watcher watchers have things well organized in New Orleans, so it isn’t really necessary for me to do much there. I’ll try to visit with as many of the people Patricia has lined up as I can, but nothing about the next several days is written in stone. I’d still rather not end up in the headlines.”

“That’s logical,” Cate agreed, “although we probably have more Seers and Watchers lined up there than anywhere else, so if we can keep out of trouble you can reach a lot of people with a minimum of effort. Also, we need to manage the issue and not let people push us around.”

“That makes sense. Also, I think everyone in New Orleans has been inviting their relatives so I can check them out. That’s bound to take some time. We’ll just have to hope we can keep a low profile for once.”

“It’s hard to keep a low profile when people bow down to you in public or approach you in a public cafeteria dripping with fresh blood,” Cate reminded him. He merely nodded, well aware of how these things quickly got out of hand.

The normal six-hour trip wasn’t as difficult as the trip from St. Louis had been. They met plenty of new people, but they were more scattered, despite this being a more heavily traveled route. Instead of stopping at nearly every exit, they only had to stop every couple of exits. In fact, when they pulled into one McDonald’s to talk over coffee with a couple of girls they’d just flagged down, Alex recognized it from their previous drive down several months ago. He wondered just how many people might have been following him then and he’d been unaware of it, missing the chance to not only talk to people, but to learn about himself before he’d reached New Orleans. But he realized everything needs its own time and you can’t rush life. Life happens according to its own schedule, and you have to be willing to adapt to it. Anh had been drilling that into him lately and he thought it particularly good advice.

As they drove past Lake Maurepas and the nearby Maurepas Swamp, Alex grew both more excited and more nervous as he recognized the sights. He remembered the view of Lake Ponchatrain which made him so reflective before. As they entered the city he spotted several sights he remembered, despite the fact they’d spent most of their time in the French Quarter, the view of Poydras Street in particular bringing back memories of his first medical intervention. When they pulled up in front of Allison’s apartment everyone was more than ready to get out of the car, since they’d spent most of the day sitting.

Tina and Amy agreed to check into ‘Le Sursis Petits’, the quaint little hotel Alex and his family had stayed in on their previous visit. Alex didn’t feel secure staying there again since the local reporter revealed Alex was staying there, but he felt comfortable with the management and was sure the girls would feel comfortable. However the girls had heard stories of Allison over the last two days and were anxious to see where Alex was staying, so they followed the others up to her apartment.

They’d reached the elevator in the lobby and when it opened Alex found himself inundated by three excited young women who quickly swarmed over him.

“Alex, it’s so good to meet you,” a girl with reddish hair who Alex had never met before stated excitedly. In fact, Alex was sure he’d never met any of them before, so he was confused why they all seemed to know who he was.

“We were expecting you, but knowing you’re coming and seeing you are two completely different things,” gushed another, a blond whose bangs kept falling into her eyes.

“Hold on, hold on,” Alex said, trying to fend them off. He glanced at Gail, who was supposedly protecting him, but she was giggling with a hand over her mouth, so she was obviously not going to be of any help. “Now, could someone kindly tell me who you are?” he asked once he’d gotten a little space for himself.

“Oh, sorry. We were so excited we kind of got carried away,” said one, obviously the most outspoken of the group because she quickly took over speaking for them all. “We sublease Allison’s apartment from her. We agreed to let you take over the apartment while you’re here, with the understanding we’d get to meet you. We’re here to help get you settled and then we’ll take you to where we’ll meet Patricia for dinner.”

“Oh,” Alex said, relieved there was a rational explanation for three young women throwing themselves at him for no apparent reason. Not that it didn’t happen all the time anyway, but here they’d had no time to be drawn by his energy. “Are you... ?” he asked, not willing to finish the question in case they weren’t.

“Oh, yes, we’re what you call Watchers. Patricia selected us from the group who hung out at Peter’s coffee shop to take over Allison’s apartment for her. She felt renting it to her ‘sisters’ was more fitting, plus she figured we’d keep it neater if she could threaten how upset you’d be if we didn’t,” she answered with a giggle.

Alex had to admit she was cute, in that bubbly teen manner he normally found so annoying. It was the sort of teeny-bopper/cheerleader type of enthusiasm. Still, on this girl it seemed to fit.